Which do you prefer to run, mixed freights or unit trains?
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Both!
Mixed.
Mixed, I don't like uniformity 
Both!
Peter
Both!
Whatever is there to run
Both
Both for sure.
Unit trains. Especially box cars and flats with trailers.
Well, I think of unit trains as a modern phenomenon, but I don't think that is true as
long trains of coal hoppers used to come out of Appalachia (and probably still do).
And certainly long trains of reefers used to run west to east. Several locations on the Colorado narrow gauge were known for "stock rushes", when long trains of stock cars would be moved. With short trains on a short line, four or five hoppers hauled from under a coal bunker would constitute a "unit train" in this world, but most of mine would be mixed.
Both.
I see a trend developing here.
My railroad needs both.
Which child do you love more?
Both
Originally Posted by SantaFeJim:
Which child do you love more?
Just maybe the best reply I have ever read!
When presented with a choice for model trains, it's gotta be both!
I even like mail and express cars in my passenger trains.
Definitely unit trains.
Originally Posted by Traindiesel:
When presented with a choice for model trains, it's gotta be both!
I even like mail and express cars in my passenger trains.
Me to Brian. I've slipped in a milk car or two in with my passenger consist.
I love both too. When I'm just running modern trains around the layout it's unit trains. But for operating sessions it's definitely mixed manifest consists.
Art
Both. I like to mix up to keep it interesting.
Mixed up freight, with a caboose.
I would run both, but I only have a couple of like cars. Mine would have to be a short unit train.
Mega mix freights for me.
As a kid, all I could run was mix freight and had no choice with the cars that I had. I longed for a unit train of anything.
When I got back into the hobby as an adult, I was able to create unit trains to satisfy that boyhood dream (post war and modern), but I would have to say...
Both!
And with the caboose of course!
I run mostly mixed, save for my intermodal train which kind of "is what it is". I have a hard time wrapping my head around buying 10-15 (that's a long train for me...) of the same car. The closest I get outside of the intermodal train (all stack) is 6 coal hoppers and 6 tank cars with a box car in between. I also have a train that is mostly box cars, but has a number of TOFC cars as well. I guess in a way, the hopper/tank is "unit" in the sense that everything is fuel, and the box car trains are as well because everything is technically in a "box". 
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE a nice, prototypical unit train. I run them in N - I have a ton of NS coal hoppers, TTX well cars, and modern tank cars/grain hoppers that make up unit trains. IN fact, that's almost all I run in N. But for O, with prices what they are, I like to mix and match a little to get some variety and save some cash.
Just like I used to tell my wife......."If You're Gonna Do It, Do It Straight Up!". In case you're wondering, A unit train WITH A CABOOSE!!
Originally Posted by PAUL ROMANO:
Which do you prefer to run, mixed freights or unit trains?
Taking a page from an old Dion Sanders Commercial:
Mixed or unit freights? Both
Freight or Passenger? Both
Steam or Diesel? Both
2-rail or 3-rail? Both
both, but I do like a long coal drag at times!
All depends on what Im in the mood to run. Manifest, unit, passenger, work...... they're all good trains.
Well I don't know?
If I choose only one..
It would be a mixed "military unit" 
Oh yea!, cant forget about the nurse red cross caboose
both !! But if I had to choose only one it would be a mixed freight.
I have both, but my preference is for dedicated, or single unit trains.
I like both but gotta admit that a nice long unit train is tough to beat for making a powerful impression!
- Mike
Once in a great while I'll run coal gondolas, but I find mixed freights more interesting.
Both here to.........................Paul
I guess I would go either way, but I'm a big fan of those long autorack trains!
Mixed freight with caboose.
Depends on what you mean by a "unit train." I'm only interested in the steam/diesel transition era and earlier, so a "unit train" in the modern sense has no place on my layout. Unless you count a RDG or PRR coal drag, of course.
With that exception, I much prefer mixed freights.
We run mixed. We don't really have enough freight cars of one kind to run a unit train with the exception of a Milk train. But even then the cars are different.
Some day, when I stop buying the kids trains and I finally get my trains, I would like to get some Chessie engines and pull a unit train full of coal hoppers.
Ron
Unit trains are impressive at first, become boring as more of the same rolls by.
Rusty
Mixed freight in real life and mixed freight in the basement. I will occasionally run a solid coal train though.
Curt
Curt
Both. Wouldn't have it any other way.
Joe B.
I prefer mixed freight. It is just more visually interesting, and holds peoples' attention longer. I find long unit trains with little or no difference between the cars to be very boring after the first pass. Short special unit trains, like a steel slag car tain, are a little better. Unit trains where the car styles are the same but all the road names are all different are somewhat tolerable to me though (the one exception to this is billboard reefer trains - if all the reefers are different, I actually like this type of unit train). The only uniformity I like to see is with passenger trains.
These are just my preferences, and they pretty much extend to 1:1 trains as well. After the engines and the first few cars go by, my attention starts to wander with unit trains.
Andy
I run my coal train as a unit that's the only one, all others are mixed freight.
Gentlemen,
I run both except for the Christmas Box Car Train, and even then each Christmas Box Car is different in the consist. I actually like work trains the best.
PCRR/Dave
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I prefer mixed because I find them a lot more interesting. I prefer the same for real trains for the same reason. I do run either at times. Unit trains, I can do grain, coal with coal porters, car carrier and inter-modal.
Larry
Mixed, with two exceptions. My absolute favorite freight train is a string of Atlas (or K-Line) billboard reefers, pulled by steam of course. The other unit train I like to run is a consist of tank cars. MTH and K-Line have made some very colorful tank cars, and Lionel also made some nice ones several years ago. These are modern cars so they have to go behind diesels.
Both for me. I usually run a mixed freight but with a long string of PS-1 boxcars at the end...
Mixed. It gives me a good chance to represent fallen flags making up the N&W.
Gilly
I model the PRR in the late 40s, and I will run (once that section is complete) a coal train made up of H21 hoppers between my coal mine and power plant. That will be my only "unit" train. I will also run a block of like cars in my mixed freight. This includes a block of Merchandise Service cars and a block of oil tankers.
Both, trending towards unit.
I run both kinds. My current one is my Tropicana juice train, layouts a bit too small to run all 15 cars but it still looks good. I've run in the past a Virginian rectifier pulling a set of IR VGN hoppers and a Milwaukee RS3 pulling about 20 Milwaukee ore cars. My current quest is to complete my K-Line Santa Fe map boxcar set and get a ATSF steam locomotive to pull it.
Jerry
I like both. I can do a MTH Railking Husky stack unit train but I need more stack cars. I can do a completer 0-27 box car unit train because I have at least 30.
I prefer long mixed trains both real life and model. I find these trains more appealing from a standpoint of interest. Visitors seem to have fun seeing what kind of car is exiting from the tunnel next!
I do run unit coal trains at times up to 18 cars including some gondolas with coal loads. These trains are usually pulled by a N&W Y6b ( MTH ) at very slow speed with lots of smoke pouring out of the stack. Sometime I double head a 0-8-0 & and a 2 - 8 - 0 ( Lionels ) instead of the Y6b on unit coal trains. At other times I may use a B&O consist of SW 9, RF 16 Sharknose, and a GP9. Other times I use my Canton end cab switcher with a calf unit or two running at very slow speeds.
I also run long unit box car trains ( 15 - 20 cars ) pulled by a Reading or Virginian Trainmaster,or J Class 4-8-4, or Baldwin Demonstrator RF 16 Diesels in AA lashup, or two scale sized GG1s.
Todays running was made up of three mixed freights. One longer train was comprised of two depressed center flat cars with transformer loads, several gondolas with junk loads, tank cars, hopper cars with coal loads, and a single box car. Pulled by a Canton end cab switcher and SW 9 calf.
Todays second trains was comprised of box cars, covered hoppers, tanks, open hoppers with coal loads, an empty flat car, with caboose. Pulled by a Reading Trainmaster
The third mixed freight ( running on the Mountain Division ) was a short train of one flat car of logs, and a tank car, with caboose, pulled by a SW 1 ( Ma & Pa ) All three of these mixed freights running simultaneously was quite an interesting site to behold.
Fun time in Patburg on the Free State Junction RR.
I run both but I actually prefer the unit train. I'm not sure why other than the fact I just think they look neat. Perhaps its the symmetry of a long unit train. Below is an oil/chemical tank unit train pulled by a Lionel Alco C420 in New Haven Livery being paced by a long mixed drag freight headed up by Lionel KCS F3s.
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I'm sure that I would have to say that I lean towards the unit trains. I believe that my roots go back to Lionel's postwar catalogs where there in the background of what they were selling sometimes showed unit trains like a long line of Sunoco tank cars. And I have always liked pulling a long line of cars.
I have not had a layout for a number of years now, and my wife wants me to have one. My biggest holdup has been with a bad foot that I have had now going on for 10 months that include a short hospital stay and a couple of procedures up unto today.
I have to say that I envy everyone that has a large layout and can enjoy the pleasure of running trains. Maybe one day this year I will have one too.
And I also know that I may have to make some tough decisions soon on my trains. I'm at a point where I have too many trains. And this is where the unit trains come into play. When Lionel brought out the Ice Cold Express I fell in love with the graphics on the cars, which has turned into a 26 car unit train. But I may have did away with the unit train when I purchased 6 Bowser Ice Cold Express 53' RoadRailer trailers to add to it. But it does not end there with my unit trains, lets just say I have some more and some are longer. And soon I must decide between having all of these unit trains or buying some other trains.
But I also love mixed trains too. My favorite so far has to be my Baltimore Maryland mixed train. Which includes lots of I love Maryland, Old Bay Seasoning, Orioles & Ravens box cars, MD. Crab, Philips Seafood & National Aquarium cars and some others. The train also includes the best way to help wash down those steamed crabs, we then have some Natty Boh cars.
Both, although I tend to run more mixed freights.
I model primarily the PRR steam to diesel transition era. I love running a coal drag pulled by a J-1 ir Mountain. I also love my unit train of mixed or all beer Atlas reefers. That said I have to say I run both unit trains and mixed freight.
On my lower deck I run a 2.5% grade up and over dog bone style layout, most of the trains are unit trains. Certain Railroads sorted their tonnage out west at the base of the mountains before heading over a pass. Allot of the same freight was sorted at the base of the mountain so helpers could be strategically used at a lower cost.
Also, because of the layouts size, I tend to stage trains on and off of the layout.
The upper deck has a high line and a low line. Most all of its operations are used for staging passenger traffic.
Well the CNJ ran long coal drags and I spent the last few months picking up eastern road names so that now I can run a unit train. My train length is limited by the reversing loops but it does make a nice looking train. I like to set this train on cruise and have the commuter trains (passenger) dodge this one. Makes for interesting and fun single operator running.
Originally Posted by J Daddy:
On my lower deck I run a 2.5% grade up and over dog bone style layout, most of the trains are unit trains. Certain Railroads sorted their tonnage out west at the base of the mountains before heading over a pass. Allot of the same freight was sorted at the base of the mountain so helpers could be strategically used at a lower cost.
Also, because of the layouts size, I tend to stage trains on and off of the layout.
The upper deck has a high line and a low line. Most all of its operations are used for staging passenger traffic.
This sounds like a near perfect operating layout to me. I have got to study your layout more!!
Mixed trains mostly. Once in awhile I put together the half dozen or so coal hoppers I have for a "coal drag" and that is as close to a unit train as I get on my layout!
What about a mixed train of freight and passenger cars?
The postwar freight is mixed while the modern, scale Legacy freights are all unit.
Push comes to shove........mixed for me with a caboose. I do it old school!
About the only unit train I could run is a mail & express.
Regards
Both.
My freight trains are mixed. They consist of about 65% PRR rail cars and the rest are foreign roads.
Generally, the trains in, out, and around Weirton Steel are unit trains (although not modern ones). We run cabin cars!
IN:
- Coal in hoppers (H21a's).
- Ore in jennies.
- Slag cars (empty).
OUT:
- Empties for 1 & 2 above
- Coil gondolas
- Slag cars (loaded)
LOCAL (Intra-mill):
- Hot metal (torpedo) cars
- Slab flatcars
- Ingot buggies (flatcars)
George
Unit train (1938 version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp7tNxzwZwI
Mixed train:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9jcCHxhe-8
Unit trains. I think they are a lot more realistic. I particularly like Piztwar traditional size coal dump, oil tanker, boxcar and gondola unit trains. Arnold
Arnold D. Cribari posted:Unit trains. I think they are a lot more realistic. I particularly like Piztwar traditional size coal dump, oil tanker, boxcar and gondola unit trains. Arnold
On what routes serving which industries are box car and gondola unit trains running? Unit trains carry one commodity from one producer to one user. John in Lansing, ILL
Back when I was a kid.Trains I would see was a lot of coal trains in the fall/winter.With a few mixed freights.When spring/summer came it was mixed freights with a few coal trains.I like mixed freights a little bit of every thing.
Is there a minimum number of the same cars to be considered a unit consist? I own only 2 of any particular car but I do own numerous numbers of type of cars, ie tankers, box cars, gondolas.
Paul
Yes.
Serows1 posted:Is there a minimum number of the same cars to be considered a unit consist? I own only 2 of any particular car but I do own numerous numbers of type of cars, ie tankers, box cars, gondolas.
Paul
Paul, I don't know a true definition but at one time the IC dedicated a couple of covered hoppers and an engine to move grain from elevators in Iowa to barges on the Mississippi. Back and forth, back and forth. That must have been a unit train. One commodity from one shipper to one consignee. Not always from the same elevator, but to the trans-loading facility on the river. John in Lansing, ILL
rattler21 posted:Arnold D. Cribari posted:Unit trains. I think they are a lot more realistic. I particularly like Piztwar traditional size coal dump, oil tanker, boxcar and gondola unit trains. Arnold
On what routes serving which industries are box car and gondola unit trains running? Unit trains carry one commodity from one producer to one user. John in Lansing, ILL
Thanks for the info. Now I know more about what a unit train really is.
My freight trains are all mixed freight consists, as the layout represents 1953, when the words "unit train" would have elicited the deer-in-the-headlights look, from the O Gauge West Texans who live in Caprock.
I'll see if I can get a reefer block together today, and maybe a strawberry special made up of Railway Express reefers. Thanks for giving me the idea.
Maybe we did not have Unit Trains before the term was coined, but you did see unit-like trains in the late 40s and 50s that can be modeled. Coal cars, tank cars, boxcars (auto parts and corn before hoppers), hoppers (crops as well as cement), reefers (fresh produce for us easterners), flatcars (military, maybe some industrial equipment), maybe even scrap metal in gondolas.
Its hard to believe this thread started just about 5 years ago. I noticed I replied to it on March 22, 2015 and stated my overall preference for Unit trains. Not much has changed over the last 5 years other than I do run more mixed freight these days just for some added diversity to my operating sessions. Too much of one or the either gets stale after a while. The great thing about this hobby is that there are so many directions you can go in. Unit trains, mixed freight or passenger, Post-war conventional or modern era command control, diesel or steam motive power, operating and/or collecting and I could go on. There is so much diversity that a person would find it difficult to get bored and that is why this is the world's greatest hobby.
I run mixed trains, even my passenger trains contain a milk reefer. I don't think my model railroad is long enough to give justice to a unit train.
I like running long unit trains and shorter mixed freight trains.
Don't know why, I just do
Art Howes posted: I don't think my model railroad is long enough to give justice to a unit train.
Interesting thought. Could a train made up of just two tank cars going from a central location where they were filled out to a local distributer two towns away be considered a unit train?
The definition of a unit train does not include a number of cars. I did find one association that said their unit trains have 65 to 200 cars, but I think a 20 car unit train could be realistic for modelers.
I always reserve the right to be wrong, but I believe a unit train in the purest sense can consist of any type car in any quantity but requires only a single waybill.
¿que dices de eso?
I think the idea that a unit train requiers only one waybill is a good point. There may be a couple of others that define a modern unit train. One would be that the cars stay together, and two that they are in a dedicated service. For example above, the same two tank cars always back and forth between the same loading point and the same destination.
In reality is there a definition, however? Do the railroads have a category called "unit train"
My favorite train is the local freight from the 60s and earlier. The little guy that does all the "last mile" work and has to tuck into a siding for anything else. The train that is poking around the weed grown branches or industrial areas picking up and delivering the cars to and from the customers. Back then a lot lumber yards and other small businesses got single carload deliveries. Go back to the 50s and earlier and you had a multitude of small coal yards that got one or two hoppers of coal at a time for home and small business heating. Fuel suppliers got single tank cars, or maybe half a 2 dome car even. And in those days, grain of all kinds was shipped in box cars by putting plywood gates across the door openings. Some cars even had markings painted on the inside to show how high to fill the car with each type of grain (wheat, corn, rice etc) to avoid overloading the 50 ton. These marks might have been put on by some conductors to insure the safety of their equipement with elevator loading.
All in all, a little peddler, way freight, local is to me a very fun train to model and run. It provides a lot of entertainment to switch the industries and figure out facing point and trainling point moves and how often to need a run-around. The big fast freights and units trains are exciting when they zip by, but that is it, what happens next - you wait for the next one. But the way frieight comes along and stays in town awhile and waddles around doing the business.
I once got the bug for intermodal trains and have acquired about 16 well cars with containers. But recently got bored with them and prefer mixed freight these days. Especially with alot of high cubes, center beams and tankers.
Rob,
Another interesting thought. The definition you find on different railroad associated web sites states a unit train carries a single commodity. A company that would use multiple types of freight cars for different commodities, like a paper mil, would get the commodities from different locations. Maybe they could all meet up at a classification yard to form one train to the mill. Would that be a unit train between the classification yard and the mill?
A train hauling a military battalion from its home base to a training exercise would have all sorts of cars to move the personnel and equipment, but have just one waybill. Could it be a unit train since the "single commodity" is the battalion?
I’m stuck at home so yes, I'm bored. On the forum too much.
I like both mixed freight and the occasional coal drag. Mixed freight keeps visitors in interested and they enjoy the mixed road names it brings back memories of their youth. I include a passenger or mail car in a local freight to keep things interesting.
A for me, I like both but if it were to be a unit train, all I have a lot of is PFE Reefers, so that would have to be my unit train. Interesting topic.
I have a reefer, milk, and grain train. The rest are mixed!
